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Pope: Bishops must be held accountable for abuse

Victim tells pontiff 'cover-up is still happening, and you have the power to make these changes'

Associated Press

VATICAN CITY

Jul 7, 2014

Pope Francis begged forgiveness Monday in his first meeting with Catholics sexually abused by members of the clergy and went further than any of his predecessors by vowing to hold bishops accountable for their handling of pedophile priests.

Abuse victims and their advocates have long demanded that higher-ups be made to answer for the decades-long cover-ups of rape and molestation of youngsters in a scandal that has rocked the church and dismayed its worldwide flock of 1.2 billion.

The pope celebrated a private Mass with six victims — two each from Ireland, Britain and Germany — at his Vatican residence, and spent the rest of the morning listening to their accounts, one on one.

But in speaking of accountability, he made no specific mention of what countless victims and their families around the globe have waited years to hear: whether bishops and other prelates who shuffled child-molesting priests from parish to parish or didn't inform police and prosecutors would be fired or demoted.

"All bishops must carry out their pastoral ministry with utmost care in order to help foster the protection of minors, and they will be held accountable," Francis said, delivering his homily in his native Spanish. The survivors were allowed to bring a relative or friend and an interpreter.

"Before God and his people, I express my sorrow for the sins and grave crimes of clerical sexual abuse committed against you. And I humbly ask forgiveness," Francis said.

"I beg your forgiveness, too, for the sins of omission on the part of church leaders who did not respond adequately to reports of abuse made by family members, as well as by abuse victims themselves," the pope said. "This led to even greater suffering on the part of those who were abused, and it endangered other minors who were at risk."

One of the six, Marie Kane, 43, who was abused by a priest for three years while a teenager in Ireland, said she asked Francis to remove an Irish cardinal, Sean Brady, from his post because of how he handled abuse allegations.

Kane told The Irish Times that she told Francis a "cover-up is still happening, and you have the power to make these changes." She quoted him as replying, "It was difficult to make these changes."

When Brady turns 75 next month, he will be required to offer his resignation to the pontiff, who can accept or ask him to stay on.

Francis has been criticized for how he handled abuse cases when archbishop of Buenos Aires, specifically for not meeting with victims and for denying he had handled the case of an abusive priest, said Anne Barrett Doyle, a director of the advocacy group BishopAccountability.org.

Still, Doyle said Francis' meeting with the three men and three women was a positive step.

"The pope made a significant and historic promise to discipline bishops who fail to respond adequately to child sexual abuse," she said.

Many faithful, especially in the U.S., were outraged when Boston Archbishop Bernard Law, accused of shielding abusive priests during his tenure, was given a prestigious post at a Rome basilica instead of being demoted.

Francis acknowledged that the abuse drove some victims to addiction and even suicide and said the deaths "weigh upon the heart and my conscience and that of the whole church."

Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi said the six first met with the pope on Sunday during dinner at the Vatican.

Francis had probably already met another sex abuse survivor, Marie Collins, an Irish woman serving on a commission he created to help draw up a strategy against sex abuse.

A spokesman for German victims, Norbert Denef, dismissed Monday's meeting as "nothing more than a PR event." Several meetings that Francis' predecessor Benedict XVI held with victims starting in 2008 generated similar reactions.

Comments

holysee

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 7:00am

Priests abuse in many ways...by simply labeling you as a "sinner".
Priests also tend to be mindless sex seekers of major minor abuse.
I do not trust a priest. Ever.

jazzbo

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 11:00am

Priests and Popes are sinners too.

Stop It

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 7:14am

Scrrew you, King of the Catholics.

Truth or Dare

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 10:44am

The abuse drove some victims to addiction and even suicide and the deaths of victims "weigh upon the heart and my conscience and that of the whole church". Sounds of tinkling brass?! Scriptures, of which they use to preach/teach is pretty clear as to how children should/shouldn't be treated.

Too little too late, and for far too many. Guess you gotta start somewhere, but for far too many, all the feel-good PR in the world won't erase this! Rome and the Church isn't exempt from judgment for the harm, the trauma caused, the physical and spiritual deaths. Nor are any that have facilitated the cover-up of sexual abuse of children over the centuries.

MrsCowboy

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 12:07pm

And the sheeple will buy into it, hook line, and sinker. The Catholic priests and church used to require their flock to pay them to get to heaven. Ha ha ha. Can't get much dumber than that. Keep it coming. I love all the free entertainment!

queenjhb

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 1:37pm

Wow, the abuse drove some victims to addiction & suicide, Yet the abusers get rewarded , no punishment, the ones that covered it up , again rewarded, I don't know about you but " sinners" just doesn't cover this," Heavy on my heart ", The Popes heart isn't at issue here, justice, and true repentance , and absolute change is , until then too little is too late. Depend on God,[ this church is failing his flock.]

Informed

Tue, 07/08/2014 - 4:30pm

Are some of you aware that in many areas there were no laws on the books regarding abuse of children (including sexual) until the 1970's? That before then if someone sexually abused a child it was considered a private family matter and that law enforcement often wasn't involved because no laws were broken?
I am not saying it is or was ever okay to abuse a child. I hope all child abusers burn in hell. What I am trying to say is that sometimes nothing was done because under the law, children were like property. Fortunately that has changed (not enough sometimes, but progress is being made). But when asking why something wasn't done about children who were abused by priests fifty years ago, the answer is the same for children abused outside of the church by family members, neighbors, teachers, etc. Because there were no child protective laws. What is truly sad is that such laws had to be created in the first place because of evil adults.

dorothy gale

Wed, 07/09/2014 - 7:55am

Too little too late.

queenjhb

Wed, 07/09/2014 - 7:01pm

Informed , God knew, the spokesperson for him should have known , no excuses ,not today nor 100 years ago.